Lumines: Puzzle Fusion Turns 20

The Sony PSP was released in 2004 in Japan and in 2005 for the rest of the world and the launch lineup was good. Titles such as Wipeout Pure, Ridge Racer, Metal Gear Ac!d, and Darkstalkers Chronicle: The Chaos Tower were all great in their own right, it was an odd little puzzle game that just took the gaming and music world by storm and that game is Lumines: Puzzle Fusion and it turns 20.

The game was designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, with Katsumi Yokota doing the programming and Takayuki Nakamura doing the composing work. The game was first released on December 12, 2004, the same day the PSP was released in Japan as well.

Mizuguchi once said that he wanted to make a music game on a device and make it feel like it was an interactive walkman and he did that with Lumines. The puzzle music game is about making small blocks and setting off a chain reaction to the background music on the stage. Here is a good example of how the game works with a link here.

The game received very positive reviews and won many Handheld Game of the Year awards in 2005. The game would go on to have many spin-offs and in 2006 Lumines 2 was released. This is a must-play game if you love music and puzzle games and is still fresh to play while being 20 years old.